The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) is a United States government agency which functions as a foreign intelligence service. Established in 1947 largely in response to the Soviet Union and the tensions of the Cold War era, the agency gathers intelligence but is also known for covert operations and involvement in other countries.

In popular culture, the CIA is typically simplified as an espionage agency, or collection of spies and/or action heroes, as on Mission: Impossible, Alias, and the James Bond franchise (usually via ally Felix Leitner or similar agents). If not presented in that light, the CIA is usually involved in murkier government conspiracies which may or may not involve extraterrestrials or superheroes.

References

• Wally Boag, while making balloon animals in The Muppet Show episode 520, claims to have made a police dog. "You might not recognize him. He's in the CIA."

• A 1980s treatment for a proposed Sesame Street movie, with Big Bird as President of the United States, has the other street residents appointed to government posts. Mr. Snuffleupagus, who at the time was best known for being inadvertently able to avoid detection by others, is head of the CIA.

• Baby Gonzo is a detective for the CIA (Chicken Intelligence Agency) in the first season Muppet Babies episode "The Case of the Missing Chicken."

• A 2009 pilot was made for a proposed Sesame Street short form series Munchin: Impossible, depicting Cookie Monster as an agent for the Cookie Intelligence Agency. In a 2011 tweet, Cookie Monster explained the agency was known as CIA for short.^[1]

• The CIA played its largest role in the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted. Sam the Eagle is an agent for the CIA who claims jurisdiction over the museum break-ins and robberies (presumed to be by the Lemur). His grounds is the loan of a painting from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Berlin National Treasure Museum. He engaged in one upmanship with Jean Pierre Napoleon as each tries to bring out a progressively larger badge.

See also

• FBI

Sources